The Line is the monthly newsletter of the American Alpine Journal.
HARD ROCK IN IDAHO
Above: Zach Cook leads the ninth pitch of Milwaukee’s Best. Top: The northeast face of Storm Dome in the Salmon River Mountains of Idaho. Photos by Michal Matyjasik.
It’s rare that the very first routes up a backcountry wall are 5.12 or harder, but that’s the case for the northeast face of Storm Dome, near McCall, Idaho. The sheer 275-meter wall is reached by a strenuous eight-mile hike from the road, and though attempts had been made, no routes had been completed before 2021. “From the few photos I had seen and based on a scouting mission, the wall seemed devoid of continuous crack systems but highly featured,” writes Michal Matyjasik in his report for the 2023 AAJ.
During the summers of 2021 and 2022, Matyjasik and partners Zach Cook, Duncan Ralph, and Abe Rigeb made numerous trips to the wall and established two high-quality free routes, protected by a mix of bolts and traditional gear: Milwaukee’s Best (9 pitches, IV 5.12 PG-13) and Heart of Diamond (7 pitches, IV 5.13 PG-13), the latter with three 5.13 pitches. Read Matyjasik’s dispatch from Storm Dome at the AAJ website.
SLOVAKS ON THE SLOVAK
Richard Nemec onsighting the crux rock band (M8) of the variation most often climbed on the Slovak Direct route of Denali’s south face. Photo by Michal Sabovčík.
The Slovak Direct on Denali, one of the premier hard alpine climbs in North America, made the news last spring when two American teams climbed the route in less than 24 hours. Less attention went to a pair of Slovak climbers who succeeded with their own single-push ascent of the 9,000-vertical-foot climb in 2022: Richard Nemec and Michal Sabovčík climbed the route in just 40 hours, all free (WI6 M8) and with no bivouac, despite a malfunctioning stove that left them desperately dehydrated on the final push to the summit. Read their report at the AAJ website.
Want more Slovak Direct? Episode 53 of the Cutting Edge podcast featured an in-depth interview with Matt Cornell, Steve House, and Rob Smith, talking about their own single-push climbs of this legendary route.
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NEVER TOO LATE
The Tani-Yamada route on the northwest face of Kangchung Nup. Photo by Takeshi Tani.
Takeshi Tani, a Japanese climber who lives and guides full-time in Canada, made the first ascent of the much-eyed northwest face of Kangchung Nup in Nepal with his friend Toshiyuki Yamada in 2022. In his new AAJ report, Tani wrote, “Five years earlier, Toshiyuki had asked me to go to the Himalaya, but at the time I was struggling to make a living in Canada, trying to master English, and busy with my Association of Canadian Mountain Guides training course. He asked me again every year. It was just an excuse on my part, but I had never heard of anyone who had just become a guide at the age of 40 going to the Himalaya for a new route.”
In the spring of 2022, the two finally made the trip, and the result was a two-day climb of the 900-meter face (with two more bivouacs on the approach and descent). Once on top of the 6,043-meter peak, Tani wrote, “The feeling was the same as when I climbed in the Japanese Alps for my first time: The surrounding mountains were just so beautiful.”
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A HARD WAY DOWN DENALI
One of the foremost big-mountain skiers of our time is Tiphaine Duperier from France, who contributes regularly to the AAJ. In late May, she and Boris Langenstein skied a wild line down the southwest face of Denali in Alaska, dropping more than 3,800 meters from the summit. AAC board member and pro skier Brody Leven interviewed her for Episode 58 of the Cutting Edge podcast.
LAST CALL FOR AAJ REPORTS
The 2023 American Alpine Journal will go to press in April, and the deadline for new reports is coming up fast. If you or someone you know climbed a long new route in 2022 on rock, ice, or mountain terrain, we want to hear about it. (“Long” depends on the climbing style, difficulty, and area, but in most cases we’re talking at least six pitches.) The deadline for the 2023 book is January 31! Email us at [email protected].
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The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 75,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Suggestions? Email us: [email protected].